People have often asked whether variegated yarns can be used for illusion knits so we decided to experiment with two such yarns. Our conclusion was that when your brain can perceive enough of the design to be able recognise it the yarns can be solid or variegated.

This design would be much more noticeable if the two colours were solid.

The two yarns used were very close in colouring. The pink yarn had flecks of brown and the brown had flecks of pink.

The shawl is an interesting construction as it consists of two back-to-back mitred triangles. The honeycomb design is reflected at centre back and in the centre of each triangle. Because the mitred triangles make the ridges of knitting run in various directions the shawl looks different from every angle. Sometimes you only see stripes; sometimes you see a mixture of stripes and honeycomb; occasionally you see all honeycomb.

This is not much more difficult to make than our other illusion designs. Because of the symmetry and ever-decreasing triangles, the charting is slightly different from our usual charts. We would recommend that you familiarise yourself with our methods before you try this one. There are lots of samples to try on our World of Illusion Knitting web site.

The shawl in the photos was made using DK yarns and measures approximately 56” (140 cm) across, excluding the border. Approximately 440 yards (400m) of yarn in each of two contrasting colours was used for the main body of the shawl, extra is required for the border. Using different yarn would make it bigger or smaller.

The photos show the shawl hanging on the wall, fixed to a pole with Velcro. One of them shows what you see when you look directly at the knitting; the others are from various angles. It is very difficult to photograph illusion knits to good advantage. All of the photos make the shawl look duller than it really is.

Note:

You will need a circular needle to hold the large number of stitches at the start of each triangle.

The triangles begin with a temporary cast on, which is essential to maintain the symmetry.